


Sleep

by Ciphernetics



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, mabel is a lil trooper, mild Self-harm, tired grunkle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-02-23 10:04:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2543558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciphernetics/pseuds/Ciphernetics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>from a prompt:"Grunkle Stan realises Bill is possessing Dipper during Sock Opera. Knowing Bill can only posses somebody until they fall asleep, he restrains him waiting for exhaustion to force him out."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> The full prompt: "Grunkle Stan realises Bill is possessing Dipper during Sock Opera. Knowing Bill can only posses somebody until they fall asleep, he restrains him waiting for exhaustion to force him out. Bill spends the time trying to hurt Dipper’s body and tells GrunkleStan he’ll always find a way to hurt him as revenge for cheating him 30 years ago. First he took GrunkleStan’s brother, now he’ll hurt him by targeting Dipper."

The first thing that actually tipped Stan off was when he’d heard Dipper call Wendy ‘toots’.

  
He swore up and down he’d heard that wrong. I mean, this is the same guy who’s been a stuttering mess around Wendy all summer? Stan glanced sideways and yep, Dipper’s arm was around her and she was looking real uncomfortable. Something was up.

  
So, when Dipper got up to follow Mabel to the dressing room, Stan followed, excusing himself with a gruff “Gonna go check on something.” Neither Soos nor Wendy took much notice.

  
He followed Dipper with all the stealth of a conman as he parted ways from Mabel and headed for the costumes room. Dipper’s behaviour, especially when he thought no one could see him, was weird as hell. Especially to someone who’s been watching the twins closely all summer. Stan slipping into the room, closing the door behind him and placing himself in front of it. At the sound of the door, Dipper spun round and grinned. Jeez, that was unsettling. Do kids normally have that many teeth?

  
“Oh, it’s you.” He said, grin lessening. “I thought you were Sh- Mabel. What can I do you for, old man?”

  
Old man? Stan frowned. “Kid, you, ah, feeling alright?” He asked.

  
“Ooh man, am I ever!” Dipper laughed. “You know that feeling when everything’s just going your way? Yeah, that’s the one.” Dipper reached behind him (without breaking eye contact with Stan, which was super creepy) and plucked a reverend costume off the racks of clothing. “Now, Stan, if you don’t mind, I’ve gotta change, and apparently I need privacy for that! So, feel free to go back to your seat without me, okay?”

Stan turned around and laid a hand on the door knob. “Oh, one more thing, kid. What time do the stars appear?”

  
Dipper looked at him quizzically. “What? Um, after dark, I guess?” Stan nodded. “Yep, that’s probably right. See ya, kid.” He left the room and Dipper behind him.

  
Keeping a hand on the knob, Stan just stood there for a moment, staring at the door. Dipper, you’re an idiot. Catching sight of a husky girl stomping down the hallway, Stan held a hand up to stop her. “Hey, Brenda-“

  
“Grenda.” She corrected.

  
“Yeah, whatever. I need you to do something for me, okay? Go get Mabel, and tell her these words. ‘The stars are out. Get the journal and come to the dressing room.’ This is really important.” Grenda nodded. “It’s, uh, cray cray important.” Stan added. Grenda’s face became determined, and she saluted, then set off down the hall at a jog.

  
A minute or two later, Mabel came skidding round the corner with the journal under her arm and cheeks red from running. “Grunkle Stan!” she gasped. Stan held a finger to his lips with his free hand and shushed her.

  
“Mabel, something’s wrong. I don’t know what’s up with your brother, but he’s been acting kinda freakish all night,” Stan said lowly. “A minute ago, I asked him the thing, the stars thing, and he just said ‘after dark’.”

  
Mabel held a worried hand to her face. “Are you sure he didn’t say ‘they don’t’?” she whispered. “Maybe you misheard him.”

 

Stan shook his head. “I don’t think that’s him, kid, I’m sorry.”

  
Mabel slid to the ground and hugged her knees, dropping the journal beside her. “Oh gosh,” she breathed. After a moment she jumped back to her feet and held the journal to Stan, who tucked it away in his jacket. “Okay. Okay. Grunkle Stan, we have to take Dipper home, right now.”

  
“What about your play?” Stan said, glancing at one of the many puppets littering the halls.

  
“Candy and Grenda can take care of it. This is way more important.” Mabel asserted. Stan nodded. Suddenly, the door handle rattled in his grip, but he held it fast, and a confused exclamation came from the other side of the door. Stan looked at Mabel, and she shucked off her jumper and held it out in front of her.

  
Battle stations.

  
Mabel nodded, and Stan pushed the door open in one fast movement, knocking Dipper, in full reverend costume, to the side. Mabel darted forward and straddled him before he could get back up. She shoved her jumper over his head, twisting the sleeves around him and knotting them together, into a sort of straitjacket only exceptionally for fashionable. Dipper struggled and snarled up at her. “What the h-“ Mabel shoved a nearby puppet into his mouth, silencing him. He glared daggers at her.

  
“Give it up, kid. Did you really think you could sneak this past me?” Stan said. Dipper’s face changed instantly, the glare melting away. Laughing bubbled up from his chest, muffled by the sock. It turned almost hysterical, and Mabel clambered off him with a worried frown. Stan stared down at him. “I don’t know what you’ve done to Dipper, but we’re going to find out back at the shack,” He picked Dipper up with an arm around his waist. Mabel led him to a back door they could sneak out of, and Stan drove three of them back to the shack.

  
He ignored the laughter the whole time.

  
……◊……

  
When Stan had crouched down and pulled the sock out of the boy’s mouth, the first thing he’d done was lurch forward and try to bite Stan. The sudden movement scared Mabel, and she skittered back to stand at the doorframe of the emptied store room. “Not gonna work, kid,” Stan grunted, pushing Dipper’s head back.

  
“Worth a shot, though! Right, Stanford?” Dipper cackled. Stan stood up narrowed his eyes at him. Not a lot of people called him his whole name anymore. “Say, since when did you have glasses?” Dipper said. “Sure does make you look like that other guy! What was his name? That one started with a ‘Stan’, too, right? Lemme see! Stanial? No, wait, got it! Stanley-“ He was cut off by a booming crunch. Mabel yelped and hugged herself.

  
Stan pulled his fist from the indent in the wall, watching as a few small chunks of plaster fell from his knuckles.

 

“I should have known,” he murmured.

  
Ignoring the bright reply of “yep, you should’ve!”, he continued.

  
“Was he really not enough for you? Why are you doing this to me?!” He screamed. “You already took Stanley! You got your payback! Can’t you just-“ He choked off with a quiet dry sob. “Why now, Cipher? Why him?” he whispered.

  
Mabel gasped. Cipher? Like… like Bill Cipher? She looked back over to Dipper. Stan was right. His eyes were yellow, almost glowing, and those pupils were definitely not human. How had she not noticed that earlier? Oh, Dipper… Bill saw her looking and winked at her. “Little possession trick, Shooting Star. Most people don’t notice. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

  
“Shut up!” Stan barked, and both children looked back to him. “Answer me. Why are you doing this again?” Mabel cocked her head slightly. Again? Bill just grinned that toothy grin, looked up at Stan. “Talk.” Stan said through gritted teeth.

  
“I thought you said shut up, Stanford.”

  
Stan’s fist swung round, and Mabel screwed her eyes shut and flinched. No punching sound was forthcoming, and she peeked out. Stan's fist was hovering not an inch from Bill’s face (From Dipper’s face, she shuddered) and she could see it shaking. Stan stepped back and turned his back on bill. “Mabel, go to bed.” He sounded tired, and her eyes flickered between him and bill, still lying swathed in colourful wool. “Don’t worry,” Stan grunted, answering the unspoken question. “As soon as he falls asleep, we’ll get Dipper back. We just have to wait.” Mabel nodded and followed her Grunkle out. As the door closed, she caught another wink from bill. Stan locked the door from the outside.

  
It was hours later when Mabel woke up. She groggily lifted her head to check the clock. 2:09 am. Wait. That’s not right. What woke her? She got her answer when another loud thump reached her ears. It was coming from downstairs. She tucked her hair behind her ears and stood up, grabbing a blue glowstick from her bedside and snapping it into light. Another loud thump. She pulled open her bedroom door. Another thump. She tiptoed down the dark stairs, lit by the soft blue glow.

  
Two more thumps, in rapid succession. She was sure they were coming from where bill was. She reached the store room door and unlocked it, slowly edging it open. She could barely see inside, so she held her glowstick through the crack. Bill was kneeling on the other side of the room, leaning his face against the wall. He didn’t appear to have noticed her, and he pulled back slowly. Immediately he jerked forward again, and the sickening thud of his face meeting the wall forced a gasp out of Mabel. Bill turned around and smiled at her.

  
“Well, Shooting Star! What a pleasant surprise! Whatcha up to? Sleeping?” he cackled. “Not my thing, really, but I’ve been having tons of fun on my own anyway!” Mabel rushed forward and dropped to her knees beside him. She held the glowstick up to his face and felt like she’d been punched straight in the stomach. Dipper’s nose was definitely broken, and both his eyes were bloodshot and bruised. Bill appeared to have chewed Dipper’s lips as far as he could reach with his teeth, and the puffy, shredded skin was still welling with droplets of blood. Mabel reached up swiped a thumb over his cupids bow, where blood from his nose had pooled and clotted. Her breath hitched and she felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. She threw both her arms around Bill.

 

“Whoa, hey, Shooting Star! What is this? What are you doing? Kid?”

  
Mabel sniffled. “I’m so sorry, Dipper. Please come back. Please give him back...” she whispered.

  
Bill chuckled. “If you wanna tell that to him, kid, you’re facing the wrong way.”

  
Mabel pulled back. “What?” she said.  
“Yeah, Pine Tree’s been around the whole time. He’s over there,” he nodded over her shoulder. “Stopped begging around midnight. Hasn’t said anything since, which is a real shame. I was enjoying it a whole lot.” Mabel looked to the area bill had indicated, but she didn’t see anything. She got up and walked over their anyway.

  
“Dipper,” she whispered. “I can’t see you, or hear you, I don’t think. But I really hope you’re here. I promise we’ll fix this. I miss you, bro.” She closed her eyes and held out her arms. “I... I wanna give you a hug, dip, ok?” Mabel didn’t hear anything in response, but she swore she felt a chill wrap itself around her.

  
……◊……

  
Bill didn’t sleep for 2 more days. After bill had taken to flipping himself backwards until a massive lump had formed on formed on the back of Dipper’s head, Mabel had helped Stan move his armchair into the room and tie bill to it so he couldn’t hurt himself anymore.

  
Mabel took to force feeding him water, because Stan had told her once that the human body could die of dehydration a lot faster than hunger. At the time, it hadn’t really seemed important. Every time Stan checked on bill, Mabel could hear bill’s loud screeching, talking about ‘deals’ and ‘brothers’ and ‘cheaters’. Stan never yelled back. In front of bill, he never dropped that stoic mask, but when he thought no one was watching Mabel could see the way his shoulders drooped.

  
When she’d checked on bill and found Dipper’s body snoring lightly, she’d immediately fetched Stan. He untied Dipper and told Mabel to call an ambulance. When Dipper woke up in hospital a day later, the first thing she’d asked was “when do the stars come out?” and he’d smiled weakly and replied “They don’t.”

  
She’d hugged him so tightly the nurse had told her off.

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews are always appreciated, and you can send prompts to my tumblr ',:)


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